Arco Il'Ris
In the Manastorm Grounds in the southern Xeric Peninsula: Arco walks alone towards a band of merchants. The leader sits in front of a fire chewing on something tough. He is the first to notice the holy man. “Hello friend! Interested in my wares?” The man looks around to see if there are any others with him… “Where is your pack, nomad?” I have no pack. I am alone, heading north. “Are you on your way to the Citadel too? I’m sorry to say this but… you don’t have the look for that city.” The man gave a hearty laugh giving a look to his fellow party-men. I’d rather be in Rasaph’s land. At least there’d be good conversation and something worthy to learn. “You seem too priestly to associate with those ghastly folk. Are your gods not of the 7th Age, stranger?” Who I serve has existed long before the ages began. Tell me traveler, why do you journey to Celadon? “For the same reason as anyone else,” the man begins in a tone of mock-sadness “ for RICHES.” He ends his sentence with a poorly suppressed chortle before bursting into a full cackle along with his mates. After a minute he collects himself and says as he wipes some tears from his eyes. “What do you say to that?” Our quests are similar although I am in search of a different form of wealth. “And that is?” Arco looked up from his downcast gaze and gave a soft smile. Do you know of Onema, traveler? ______________________________ General Information A tempest domain cleric holy man of the desert in search of the information needed for the next world. Hails from the Tiebr Nomads who he abandoned to travel to Uqhesh all in service of his god: Onema. During his journey North he spent his time preaching about the Archeofuture. Origins One night, inspired by his arrogance and egotism, Arco left his nomad tribe and found himself lost in the heart of a Manastorm. While being slashed at by the terrible storm, Arco fainted. He awoke in calm plains. No storm in sight. However, he remembered what he dreamt during his sleep. His memory of the dream consisted of events that lasted a year. He had already become an apostle of Onema. Archeofuturism (religion) Onema is an ancient mythological figure believed to be apocryphal in most divine histories. That is to say, worshippers who call out the name of Onema in the ancient tongue, Dorime, are seen to be poor pitiful fools who’ve been led astray from walking the path of a more legitimate deity. Set, God of darkness and desert storms is said to trick those he saves with false gods in order to extort prayers and worship from them. Arco does not believe the hearsay. Onema is a wondrous and powerful god who will rain down death on those who deny the movement of time to the appointed state, the Archeofuture, where the forests of the world will be dwarfed by the sudden growth in the sands to come and Land and Sky will reunite after being separated since the Beginning. As worshiper of Onema, Arco hopes to hasten the degradation of this world in order to make room for the next. Those who do not know are to be treated with respect and kindness regardless of their beliefs. Love thy neighbor for you share all share one house one day. Problems and issues of the present are seen as chaos in the sandfall of time. Followers of Onema are meant to be a home for those weary of the tempest of our time before we reach Archeofuture. How do we reach the Archeofuture, where the goals of the past will be fulfilled with the knowledge of the present? Well in the tradition of Onema, the time in which we live (dubbed the Time of Chaos) is a trial for the living in which they must learn of the world and use what is learned to accelerate towards the state of rebirth that is the Archeofuture. Learn of the world in what way you may ask. well… in every domain in which there is humanoid flourishing: Science, Art, and Philosophy are all fountains of knowledge where a follower of Onema may extract what is necessary to bring about the Nahda Growth, the terraforming event awaited. The Center Quotes from the dreams he’s had where he momently escapes the Time of Chaos (this reality) and meets the Witness, a being localized outside of time who awaits the Archeofuture. The dreams used to last years but now feel shorter and shorter. When Arco first began to feel the dreams ten years ago, each dream felt as long as a year. Now his dreams seem to last only minutes. This worries Arco but, the Witness doesn’t mind. The Witness never frets. “This is a neutral zone. Feel free to rest here before diving deeper. The sands can often seen impossibly huge and scary. But it’s ok for you to rest. The vast ocean of information isn’t going anywhere, so feel free to stay awhile. Warm your hands by the fire. Have a drink. Tell me of your ventures, friend.” “Oh? This time you headed inwards? You weren’t expected here... but you're still welcome. This.... Is The Center.” “Welcome traveler, I see you’ve had some interesting tales. Now sit down around the campfire, relax, and enjoy the music. Now is not a time to be on edge, instead tell me some of your stories on the sands, and enjoy everything as long as you like before you enter the horrible horrible outskirts in search of- Let’s not talk about that. Instead let’s enjoy this wonderful safe space and eat and drink as we please.” Teachings Writings from dialogues with students, Session 1: “It seems contradictory to want the destruction of the world but at the same time value the goods of living beings. How does that work out?” After the Nahda Growth, society will have to be rebuilt. Allies will be needed. Knowledge and wisdom from the Time of Chaos should be preserved. Good morals should be protected. Arco judges those he feels are worthy to exist in the next world and lets the chosen continue to live their lives. If they are clearly an ignorant evil, Arco will try his best to impart his wisdom. Of course… some people will not listen to reason. In the religion of Archeofuturism, no-one is really dead. The body decays but the soul stays… lingers even. Souls must find their way out the Time of Chaos and arrive at the Center, where they will await for the destruction of the world. “But the destruction of the world must be at least hundreds of years from now. Surely nobody can live til that long. Will all peoples good or evil be waiting at the Center?” Yes but after the Nahda Growth, our god, Onema will judge those souls at the center and permit only those who can contribute to the new society. All others will be forever trapped at the Center until they learn the Means. “Oh great.. what are the Means?” The Means are the good practices worthy of entry into the Archeofuture. “Alright… and your goal is to kill all the bad people and keep the good people alive?” A good man ready for the Archeofuture can die tonight and be saved. Also most people are lower on the Spectrum. My goal is to bring as many I can to that state of readiness. “And what’s at the other end of this “spectrum” of yours?”em. Well most people are able to be taught, even without their awareness. But if there does exist such a being who is unable to learn of the Means, well, Onema will have a place for them. “Onema sounds like they don’t have a fully fleshed out plan.” You dare criticize Onema for their gift? It seems you are lost in the Chaos. Stick with me and maybe I can show you how to live better. Session 2: “Who will be leaders of the new world in the Archeofuture?” Patchwork, Onema’s inspiring vision of a '''political' system. Patchwork's innovative design, which relies on sovereign joint-stock republics with cryptographic governance, brings the promise of clean roads, negligible crime, invincible automata armies, and world peace.'' In the Patchwork System of the Archeofuture, armies are constructed based on algorithms following psychohistoric principles and Neohumanoid Praxeology. The automata are not to be feared. They will be trust worthy for they will be under the service of the people. Reject them if you wish but getting started in the new world will be much more difficult without them as they will possess the ability to directly edit a person’s lineage factor, thereby erasing diseases and other vulnerabilities found within all humanoids, not least of which includes their hierarchical tendencies. “Are the good not good enough as they are for this new world? Isn’t why Onema chose them? What a meddlesome god… but what god isn’t I suppose. Seems any god I hear about just wants to control their supplicants. What makes this dog-god of yours so different?” Interregnum- There is no sovereign of this world. The beginning had One God but the Splitting happened. The Time of Chaos is the result of the Interregnum which was enacted aeons ago after the evaporation of the First God. We have lost our way and only Onema is trying to correct the path. “But why must the good die? Onema only wants for a vengeful singularity. That is it, isn’t it? Revenge for the First God?” Revenge? The First God’s absence is more a sign of abdication then anything else. Who could unseat the all-powerful? They have renounced their responsibility and have sent existence into a phantasmagoria of unrelenting disorder. Onema is a savior and the unity proposed is necessary and transitory. Notes Accelerationism in real life is the sociopolitical theory that everything wrong with capitalism should just be kicked up to eleven so that the system and crash and we can start over with a new better system. In this context, accelerationsist is used in the ecological sense. Everything that is destroying nature should be exacerbated to the point where the world is destroyed. The religion of Onema believes that at that point (when the World's HP reaches 0) the world will be reborn into something better. Into what... we have only vague ideas of what that might look like. Archeofuturism, is the political ideology spawned in France in the late 90s that was a vision for the future of the Right (in Europe) that: "requires a transcendence of the division between those who wish for a restoration of the traditions of the past, and those who are calling for new social and technological forms - creating a synthesis which will amplify the strengths and restrain the excesses of both: Archeofuturism."